On the back, where a player’s name is usually displayed in nice, embroidered lettering, pieces of white tape covered what was probably “Fernandez,” for Rudy Fernandez, whose No. 5 jerseys were in vogue for a few seasons. Or maybe it was a Raymond Felton jersey.

Whatever the original name was, it was covered by the white tape upon which "Barton" was written in dark pen, for rookie Will Barton.

Confusing? Maybe a little. A beautiful garment? Not so much. But the guy put the work in with tape and pen and got what he wanted.

That enterprising fan might be the perfect symbol for this season’s Blazers, who don’t seem to have any discernible statistical identity, and have played some sloppy basketball, but have played hard enough and well enough to win four games in a row and get back to .500 at 12-12.

“We don’t have a statistical formula for winning,” coach Terry Stotts said after the game. “But I think when we play together, and do what’s necessary, we do pretty well.”

The winning streak started against Toronto, when the Blazers set an NBA record by shooting 0 for 20 on three-pointers but still won 92-74. The next game, they beat a very good San Antonio team behind great game by rookie point guard Damian Lillard, who had 29 points.

Then, the beat New Orleans in a game they dominated, nearly gave away, then won when Lillard hit a last-second three-pointer.

On Thursday, the Blazers tossed up 36 three-point attempts and made 14, making up for an otherwise poor shooting night in which they finished 19 for 56 on two-point shots (33.9 percent). It helped that the Nuggets broke the Blazers’ record by shooting 0 for 22 from three-point range.

In some games, the Blazers move the ball very well (they had 25 assists Thursday). Other nights, they get sloppy with the ball (they had 19 turnovers against New Orleans). They don’t score many points in the paint (they rank 28th in the league), nor do they get a lot of fastbreak points (27th).

The Blazers average 97.09 points, which is 2.82 less than they allow (99.91). They shoot 43.6 percent from the field, while giving up 47.0. But somehow, they pulled themselves back up to .500. Heck, they are only a half game out the seventh place in the Western Conference standings.

The Blazers might not have a statistical identity, but they do have intangible one. The one thing the Blazers have going is that they play hard most nights. Earlier in the season, their trademark was that they seemed to always come back and make a game of it when they fell behind, sometimes by double digits. It didn’t always lead to wins, but it was an identity.

More recently, the hard play has rewarded the team with the current four-win streak that is longer than any last season's team put together (you have to go back to March of the 2010-11 season to find one as long).

Stotts recalled two of the great point guards he coached to try to explain what keeps his team going.

“I think when you compete and you play hard, you make things happen,” Stotts said. “Like I always said about Gary Payton and Jason Kidd, they found ways to win, whether it was a rebound or shot, an assist, a steal, a deflection on a loose ball, whatever it was.”

You could see that in the circumstance of the four wins. In building this winning streak Portland has won with starters LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum each missing one game, and Wesley Matthews missing most of three. Considering just how much the Blazers struggled early to get points off the bench, who would have thought they could survive any starter being absent?